As the title says, I've been to Japan 3 times now. Aware of some of the pros and cons by having been there, talking to the locals and reading a lot of other people's information.
Both my wife and I are from Portugal and are going through IVF to get a kid so we are assuming we might have a kid there. I am 35 and she is 30 years old.
Career wise: I'm in IT (10+ years experience) with a senior position working remotely for the UK and she's in Finance/Accounting (7 years experience), working for a Swiss company (both living in Portugal).
My plan is as follows:
- Get my Japanese to N2 at least (but always working to N1) keep listening and speaking up to date (currently N4, potentially need another 3-4 years).
- Get my wife's Japanese to N3 at least (or close, in order for her to be able to make due there).
- Get additional, relevant certifications to further improve my job prospects at the time.
- Conclude IVF processes here and then move – that is the trigger to go. We want to spend a few years with the family after having the baby to get used to having a kid.
- Aim for a job with an expat package to sort out bank, city hall, house, visa – all the major pain points of moving. This'll probably be Tokyo.
- Get the kid into the Japanese school system.
Aware of the following, potential negatives:
- Integration challenges due to being foreigners.
- Sometimes N2 won't suffice to navigate more complex day to day situations.
- Me and the wife will be alone with a very young toddler (potentially), no family support.
- Salary cut for me (around 30%).
- Wife might not find it so easy to get a job, even when in Japan. Finance seems to mostly require N2, although the big 4 seem to be a bit more relaxed in this. This means that she'll most likely need a dependant visa and then get a part time or just look after the kid (I'm easy on either option as I'm aiming to make enough money to cover any option).
To provide further context – I already had a prospect job offer to go to Tokyo and work in IT, with said expat package. For those interested, I simply connected to IT recruiters in Japan and shared my CV with them. Had many "no way, your Japanese isn't go enough" and a few "yeah we need English speakers for IT at your level". The few went a long way.
Decided not to go due to IVF mainly and our Japanese not being good enough. I'm a firm believer that a lot of work needs to be done before moving there to lessen the cultural and language impact (I've learnt this by having moved to the UK at a young age for 7 years to get a career going).
Purpose of this post is to vet my approach. Are there holes in it? Am I forgetting something?
TLDR: Plan is to get to Japan in 3-4 years, potentially with a kid. Got some context but wanting to foolproof it with your experience.
EDIT: typo.
Thank you!
by Dull_Reason5500